Intercept Pharmaceuticals Appoints Lisa Bright as Head of Europe

Published 6:01 AM ET Mon, 17 Nov 2014
Globe Newswire

SHARES

NEW YORK and LONDON, Nov. 17, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intercept Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ICPT), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics to treat chronic liver and intestinal diseases, announced today the appointment of Lisa Bright as Senior Vice President and Head of Europe, effective November 17, 2014. Ms. Bright will be a member of the Intercept senior management team and will spearhead Intercept's European operations based in London as the company prepares for the first indication approval and launch of obeticholic acid (OCA).

A seasoned executive who brings more than 25 years of biotech and pharmaceutical industry experience, Ms. Bright comes to Intercept from Gilead Sciences where she held positions of increasing responsibility, including Vice President, Northern Europe, and most recently Vice President, Head of Sovaldi Launch Planning for Europe, Asia, Middle East and Australasia and Vice President, Head Government Affairs for Europe, Middle East and Australasia. Ms. Bright's leadership of Sovaldi's European launch contributed to the most successful product launch in pharmaceutical history.

Ms. Bright joined Gilead as General Manager, UK & Ireland in 2008. Prior to that, she held a range of senior leadership positions over a 10-year tenure at GSK, including Vice President & Managing Director of GSK's New Zealand operations and Vice President and Head of Sales, UK.

"Lisa brings a highly relevant track record of performance in managing high growth organizations, leading product launches in the chronic liver disease therapeutic space, and advancing key stakeholder relationships internationally," said Mark Pruzanski, M.D., Chief Executive Officer. "We are thrilled she is joining Intercept's senior management team as we prepare for our anticipated commercial launch of OCA in the U.S. and Europe."

"I'm really excited to join Mark and his team to continue building Intercept into a leading biotech company tackling neglected liver diseases such as PBC and NASH," said Ms. Bright. "I look forward to continuing to work with clinicians, health care systems and community groups to ensure that innovative medicines get to patients who often have no other therapeutic option as quickly as possible."

About Intercept

Intercept is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics to treat orphan and more prevalent chronic liver and intestinal diseases utilizing its expertise in bile acid chemistry. The company's lead product candidate, obeticholic acid (OCA), is a bile acid analog and first-in-class agonist of the farnesoid X receptor (FXR). OCA is being developed for a variety of chronic liver diseases including primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). OCA has received Fast Track Designation in the United States and orphan drug designation in both the United States and Europe for the treatment of PBC and PSC. Several large, randomized, controlled studies of OCA in the treatment of chronic liver disease have been completed. These include Intercept's Phase 3 POISE trial for the treatment of patients with PBC and the FLINT trial for the treatment of patients with NASH. Intercept owns worldwide rights to OCA outside of Japan, China and Korea, where it has out-licensed the product candidate to Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma. For more information about Intercept, please visit the company's website at: www.interceptpharma.com.

Safe Harbor Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements regarding Intercept's plans to commercialize OCA and expand its operations into Europe, and the timing therefor. These "forward-looking statements" are based on management's current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the initiation, cost, timing, progress and results of our development activities, preclinical studies and clinical trials; the timing of and our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of OCA, INT-767, INT-777 and any other product candidates we may develop, particularly the possibility that regulatory authorities may require clinical outcomes data (and not just results based on achievement of a surrogate endpoint) as a condition to any marketing approval for OCA, and any related restrictions, limitations, and/or warnings in the label of any approved product candidates; our plans to research, develop and commercialize our product candidates; the election by our collaborators to pursue research, development and commercialization activities; our ability to attract collaborators with development, regulatory and commercialization expertise; our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for its product candidates; our ability to successfully commercialize our product candidates; the size and growth of the markets for our product candidates and our ability to serve those markets; the rate and degree of market acceptance of any future products; the success of competing drugs that are or become available; regulatory developments in the United States and other countries; the performance of third-party suppliers and manufacturers; our need for and ability to obtain additional financing; our estimates regarding expenses, future revenues and capital requirements and the accuracy thereof; our ability to retain key scientific or management personnel; and other factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" contained in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013 filed on March 14, 2014 as well as any updates to these risk factors filed from time to time in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Intercept undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.